UK denies trade eased al-Megrahi release

Britain has denied claims from Libya that secret trade deals helped win freedom for the Lockerbie bomber. Colonel Gaddafi sealed Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi’s homecoming with a meeting in Tripoli. Gaddafi’s son Seif has said that when British companies were negotiating oil and gas deals with Tripoli the case of al-Megrahi was “always on the table.”

The decision to release him has sparked international criticism and the belief that business interests in London played a part. Recently Libya has become an valued economic partner, thanks to its vast reserves of oil and gas. British Petroleum recently won a huge contract to exploit those reserves. Colonel Gaddafi even joined Western leaders at this summer’s G8 summit in Italy, a further step in his country’s rehabilitation from a pariah state linked to terrorism.

270 people died when Pan Am 103 exploded over Lockerbie. Al-Megrahi was jailed for life, but always denied any guilt. Now a free man, he says he has new evidence which will exonerate him once and for all.

Copyright © 2009 euronews

tags: Justice, Libya, Lockerbie